Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to display control that utilizes a virtual three-dimensional space, and more particularly to display control processing for flying a player object in a virtual three-dimensional space.
Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there are known so-called flight simulation games. In a flight simulation game, a player operates and flies a player object (e.g., an airplane) in a virtual three-dimensional space, which allows the player to enjoy a feeling as if to be freely flying in the sky. However, simply flying in the sky (within the virtual space) lacks amusing game characteristics. Therefore, some attempts have been made to add amusing game characteristics. As one example, there is a game in which a player of the game acquires predetermined points by sequentially acquiring ring-shaped objects that are placed in the air. This adds amusing characteristics to the game (e.g., “Pilotwings 64 Toriatsukai Setsumeisho (Instruction Manual of Pilotwings 64)”, Nintendo Co., Ltd., Jun. 23, 1996, p. 21; and “64 Books 100 Percent Asobu Pilotwings 64 (64 Books—Play Pilotwings 64 to 100 percent)”, GEIBUNSYA PUBLISHING Co., Ltd., Sep. 28, 1996, p. 54).
In the above game, the player can acquire a ring by simply causing a player object to come into contact with the ring (in this game, when the player has acquired a ring, the player may be informed that the player object has “passed through” the ring). Since the game has the feature that the player is required to control the player object to come into contact with a ring to acquire the ring, the game's amusing characteristics are improved to some extent. However, the game, in which the player simply aims to fly the player object to the position of a ring for the purpose of acquiring the ring, is still monotonous and lacks variety. In this respect, the applicant of the present application discovered that there was still room for improvement which could be made, for example, by allowing a player to freely control a flying player object and perform more difficult flight operations (e.g., an operation of causing the player object to pass through a ring) with a moderate degree of difficulty (i.e., not too difficult and not too easy), thereby enhancing the amusement of the game.